The present invention is directed to a computer-aided system for providing a high-resolution imaging system with a computerized Geographic Information System to produce rapidly-updated situation-maps for a variety of uses, such as information on critical situations, such as forest fires, and the like, in order to determine the rapidity of change of the critical situation, by which decision-making may be made more responsive and in a much shorter time span. The data transfer between components of the system is designed to be accomplished by conventional telephone and radio communication systems. Data-presentation using computerized graphics provides an enhanced ability to depict current, accurate, reliable pictorial information for better management during rapidly developing situations such as fire, floods, etc.
Traditionally, emergency situations, such as forest fires, earthquakes, environmental spills, etc., use qualitative information from a variety of sources in order to determine the locations, extent and rapidity of change of the damage. Information on the current status of these critical situations and in particular forest fires, have hitherto been derived from "on the scene" personnel, airborne observation, etc., which information is transmitted verbally over telephone and radio, and may be supplemented with optical photography, television, and hand-drawn maps. The emergency-managers, whose task is to deal with and overcome the critical situation, must interpret the current situation from a variety of unrelated information-sources, without having a standard reference database by which the currently-received information may be adjudged. Typically, the received information is subject to a variety of delays, such as, for example, the necessity to develop film of photographs taken of the critical site, the delay associated with aircraft flight-time in returning to the airfield, the failure of complicated microwave down-links, the necessity to hand-carry hard copies, subjective interpretations of the data, etc. Resources are very often misdirected due to delayed, inadequate, exaggerated, or misinterpreted information concerning the emergency in progress.